India Open | Sai Praneeth sets up all Indian quarter-final against Kidambi Srikanth
All the bog hopefuls registered easy wins in round two with Kidambi Srikanth beating Lu Guangzu and PV Sindhu overcoming the challenge of Deng Joy Xuan. In other matches, B Sai Praneeth beat Sameer Verma, while HS Prannoy got the better of Jan o Jorgensen to set-up a clash with Viktor Axelsen.
Srikanth had a rather straightforward match against
Sindhu, however, left it very late before starting to produce. Playing against Deng, the Indian shuttler saw herself trail 1-4 initially. However, she levelled things at 9-9 and 10-10 before taking the lead at the break. However, that was the last of showing from Deng. From 15-11, Sindhu won six straight points to win the first game 21-11. The second game was expected to be a bit closer with Deng showing perseverance but it, at the most, delayed the outcome. Sindhu won it 21-13.
The clash between B Sai Praneeth and Sameer Verma was expected to go down to the wire and so it did as Verma started proceedings by winning the first game. Praneeth looked comfortable against his compatriot before Sameer levelled things at 15-15 before going on to win four straight points. Though Praneeth pulled three points back Sameer ended the first game 21-18.
The second game expected Praneeth to come back stronger and so he did. After Verma went into the break leading 11-9, Praneeth did brilliantly to completely shut out his opponent and win the second one 21-16. The third game finally saw Praneeth take the lead in 11-7 as Sameer looked out of fuel and eventually Praneeth sealed it 21-15.
HS Prannoy had a tricky task against Denmark’s Jan O Jorgensen and he had to take the harder route for it. Almost all the games went close and deep. After Prannoy won the first one 21-19, he was stretched right till 20-22 by the Danish, who didn’t give up. But, the Indian showed real character to turn up for the decider after coming so close in the second game. He won the third game 21-17. However, he faces yet another Danish opponent in the quarter-final in Viktor Axelsen and he won’t be this easy.
The star from yesterday, Subhankar Dey had a tough fixture against Chinese Taipei’s Wang Tzu Wei, where he was the second favourite. And he couldn’t surprise many today as he lost the match 21-11, 21-13. Wang would face veteran Parupalli Kashyap next, who had a relatively day out against Thailand’s Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk.
Follow the other results here.
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